1959 audio thriller by Francis Durbridge: Paul Temple is a
professional novelist and amateur sleuth. A young woman has vanished
from a finishing-school in Bavaria… starring Peter Coke and Marjorie
Westbury.
Things rapidly become very confused, and naturally Drugs are
involved. There are perhaps slightly too many characters, especially
considering that this was originally broadcast at one episode a week;
but the objective is that the listener shall be surprised.
Unfortunately if you just assume that whatever seems least likely must
be what's going on you won't be too far from the mark. Durbridge's
main trick is to get the listener to say "oh, surely not him!". But
it's enjoyable even so, and there are details that this approach won't
reveal.
Notable background details in this one include the importance of
making a distinction between normal dancing and modern young-people
dances like the cha-cha. And there's that usual post-war undercurrent
that German people are faintly suspicious simply because they're
German; but there are plenty of non-foreign villains as well. More
seriously, most of the things that go wrong for the villains can be
traced to the innate unprofessionalism of anyone involved with drugs;
when you have a hero who's at risk of coming over as smug and
self-satisfied, I think it's important to show him succeeding by his
own merits.
Still, while this is no masterpiece it has its moments.
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